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N.E.W. Simple Conversion/Basic Rules
This section covers the basic elements of the conversion ruleset: namely, how player character, monster, and NPC statistics will change, as well as how dice rolls and gameplay will change. Ability Scores & Dice Pools Ability scores must be converted to the N.E.W. system for any part of this conversion to work. Since this system is d6-based, the scores are much lower on average (a 4 is average for an attribute, and a 12 is almost the highest possible for a humanoid). The primary attributes used in this system are Strength (STR), Agility (AGI), Endurance (END), Willpower (WIL), Intuition (INT), Logic (LOG), Charisma (CHA), and Luck (LUC). There are also two secondary attributes called Reputation (REP) and Psionics (PSI). * Strength: Measures might and brawn. Determines carrying capacity, some melee attacks, and melee damage. * Agility: Measures reflexes and dexterity. Determines ranged attacks and some melee attacks. Used for a shuttle maneuver or to land safely. * Endurance: Measures constitution and hardiness. Determines your Health score. Used to resist effects of poison, disease, or environmental hardships. * Intuition: Measures common sense, perception, empathy, and instinct. Used for "Insight checks", to spot something, or sense impending danger. Also used for some spellcasting and spell resistance. * Logic: Measures reasoning, knowledge, and education. Can roughly estimate IQ as 60 + (LOG x 10). Used to operate complex electronics, apply first aid, or recall knowledge. Also used for some spellcasting and resistance. * Willpower: Measures strength of mind. Determines some spellcasting and spell resistance. * Charisma: Measures physical attractiveness, personal magnetism, or force of personality. Used when interacting with others, and some spellcasting and spell resistance. * Luck: An unpredictable force. This functions as a resource: you may add one or more Luck dice to a roll much like Bardic Inspiration in D&D, or use Luck dice on other special actions. Luck replenishes itself every day. * Reputation: Measures fame, influence, and social standing. Determines starting money. Used to get loans or for some interpersonal interactions. * Psionics: Measures the psionic potential of a character. Determines mental and telepathic attacks and abilities, as well as some spell resistance. Dice Pools Attributes and skills award dice pools according to the table shown here. Look up the score or rank of the attribute or skill to find out how many dice are awarded for that skill. The scale slowly expands as it goes up, meaning that each new dice is slightly harder to obtain than the last one. Converting Ability Scores 4 is roughly average for an ability in the N.E.W. system, equivalent to a 10 in D&D. To convert a score from D&D to N.E.W., simply subtract 6 from it. Any result below a 1 is treated as a 1. * Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution clearly correlate to STR, AGI, and END. Convert those directly. * If your character is a spellcaster or similar class, choose the Spellcasting Ability next (see Spellcasting & Ability DCs below), and convert it to either LOG, INT, WIL, CHA, or PSI. * Convert Intelligence to LOG, Wisdom to INT, and Charisma to CHA. ** If one of these was your spellcasting ability in D&D and you did not ''follow this pattern when converting it to N.E.W., then instead do the following for that ability: * You should have at least one of these scores left empty: LOG, INT, WIL, CHA, PSI. You also have an empty LUC score. You may assign these remaining scores as you please, so long as their sum equals no more than 8, and each score is a 1 or greater. ** Note that unless you use Psionics for mental powers or spellcasting, it is largely irrelevant and you may assign a 0 in that score if you choose. * Work out what your REP (Reputation) score is with the DM. This isn't used for much, so it isn't super important. Skills & Skill Checks There is no proficiency with this conversion: skill checks are rolled with a pool of d6's, formed from two elements. All skill checks (and attack rolls or saving throws) follow this form: * Find the most relevant Ability Score (STR / AGI / WIL / etc.), and use it's dice. * Add a single relevant Skill (''pistols, athletics, biology, navigation, ''etc.) and add it's dice. * (Optional) Add one or more Luck die from your LUC pool. Any dice spent recharge on a Long Rest. * (Optional) If you are using a piece of equipment to make a check, add any bonus its quality gives you. You can't benefit from more quality dice than you do from Skill dice. The maximum amount of dice you can roll on a check is limited by your overall character level, as shown in the table to the right (though dice granted by Advantage can exceed this). Anything can be a skill: skills are much more specialized in this conversion than they are in D&D. Some suggestions for skills related to D&D's skills follow here: There are also possible conversions for tool and equipment proficiencies, as shown here: Converting Skills When converting, any skill proficiencies a character currently has should be converted to Skill Grades (or levels in skills), then assigned as the player and the DM think appropriate. Note that in this new system, as described later on this page, a character's combat skills are partially determined by a few specific skills, such as ''pistols ''and ''dodging, which are not listed in this section. This being noted, here follow my recommendations for how best to convert existing proficiencies to Skill Grades per character level. The notation is Grades ( number of skills required per category ). * Level 1-4: 20 (min. 1 combat, 1 defense, 6 other skills). * Level 5-8: 26 (min. 2 combat, 2 defense, 7 other skills). * Level 9-12: 33 (min. 2 combat, 3 defense, 7 other skills). * Level 13-16: 41 (min. 2 combat, 3 defense, 8 other skills). * Level 17-20: 50 (min. 2 combat, 3 defense, 9 other skills). Armor and shield proficiencies carry over unchanged from D&D 5e. All other proficiencies must be converted. Expand the section below for more thoughts on the balance of this skill conversion. * For a character starting at levels 1-4, a minimum of 13 Skill Grades should be awarded. This means a character would have on average a +1d6 to four skills and +2d6 to two skills. Roughly equivalent to D&D where every character is proficient in 4 to 6 skills, and their proficiency bonus only adds +2 to those skill checks. * The average for a character of equivalent level in N.E.W. is 16 grades in different skills, including in combat skills. * However, if a D&D character were truly converted to the N.E.W. skill system, even at such a low level, they would end up needing a lot more than 16 grades to feel similar to how they were before. Why is that, and how so? ** D&D's skill checks are very broad-ranging, meaning that a Literature check vs. an Archeology check would be lumped together in D&D as a History check, while in N.E.W. a character has to spend a lot more resources to get both skills to the same level, let alone the rest of the skills that could also be considered "History". ** Another point is that D&D makes sure that characters are decent with at least one form of combat and a few types of weapon, on top of whatever skill proficiencies they have, at base level. Thus we have even more "skill points" to account for and allocate. ** Thus, overall, a D&D character is much more of a Jack-of-all-Trades than a N.E.W. character. Advantage & Disadvantage Instead of having two rolls and taking the higher or the lower, one would instead add a d6 or subtract a d6 from a roll. In such a system, this sort of Advantage and Disadvantage can stack, e.g. an attacker who is melee striking a prone and restrained creature gains +2d6 to their attack roll. Special Equipment Instead of having special items grant +1, +2, or +3 to attack rolls or checks made to use them, have them grant +1d6 or +2d6 to those rolls. For reference, in N.E.W. a +1d6 sword or scanner is considered "high quality", a +3d6 is considered "Mastercraft" and a +5d6 is considered "Legendary". Continue using D&D rules for weapon damage. Spellcasting & Ability DCs Have spells work just like they do in D&D 5e, using the rules for Saving Throws described above. A class's converted Spellcasting ability is determined by the DM and the player, as they believe appropriate. * Spell attack rolls are simply ability checks rolled using the spellcasting ability's dice pool plus an appropriate skill, such as spellcasting ''or ''concentration. * Spell Save DC (or ability DC for fighter maneuvers, etc.) is calculated in one of two ways: ** 1) The number of dice they have in their ability pool + their proficiency (carried over from D&D 5e) ** 2) The flat value of their ability score + 6 * Spell Ability Bonus would be calculated as the number of dice in their ability pool (min. 1). Some suggestions for converting Spellcasting abilities follow: * Wizard (Int), Warlock (Cha) --> Logic * Cleric (Wis), Druid (Wis), Sorcerer (Cha) --> Willpower * Bard (Cha), Warlock (Cha) --> Charisma * Paladin (Cha), Ranger (Wis) --> Intuition * Monk (Wis) --> Psionics Character Advancement Since this conversion game's core mechanics are run with D&D's system, advancement should mostly be dictated by D&D's ruleset. However, some changes need to be made to accommodate the new Ability Scores, and the way the N.E.W. skill system is balanced: * Ability Maximum: ''Since the system has a dice pool limit dependent on character level, there is no need to limit the max. score. Characters can increase any ability as high as they want (though this is hardly ever practical). * ''Ability Score Increase: When a character takes this instead of a feat as part of a class level, they instead get 4 points that they can use to increase any Ability. They may use these points on any of the 10 ability scores, in any combination. * ''+1 Feature: ''When a character gets an item or a feat that would boost a D&D ability score by 1 (ex. the Resilient feat), they may add 2 points to the most relevant of the 10 N.E.W. ability scores. * ''+2 Feature: ''Similar to above; a feat that would boost a D&D ability score by 2 (ex. an Ioun Stone) would instead confer 3 points to the most relevant score. * ''Incremental Increase: ''Anytime a character in this system levels up, (or sooner, at the discretion of the DM), no matter what class features they gain, they automatically get an Incremental Increase. They can choose to use this on one of the following ways: ** An Exploit (essentially a minor Feat) ** An increase of 1 point in any single ability score ** An increase of 3 points divided as they please among any skills. * ''Downtime Training: ''If a character wishes to improve themselves, they may spend 1 month working in a career of their choice, as long as the DM rules it is available. Once the month is complete, they may increase a skill (must be relevant to the career they were working in, as ruled by the DM) by 1 point. A character cannot increase a skill past 6 using this feature. Category:Sci-Fi